Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993 TAG: 9302120113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`MARIJUANA MARTYR' CONVICTED
Roger Trenton Davis said he was on a mission from God, but it may send him to a federal prison for the rest of his life.A federal jury in Roanoke convicted him Thursday of selling a kilogram of cocaine, rejecting a defense theory that Davis was insane at the time of the drug deal.
Davis said he sold the cocaine in order to deliver God's message: that white America is systematically killing blacks by first allowing the deadly spread of cocaine into their neighborhoods, then by bringing charges like the ones against him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott called Davis' story "nothing more than a transparent attempt to avoid criminal responsibility."
For Davis, 48, known as the "marijuana martyr," it was the fifth drug conviction since 1972. He faces a life sentence - a distinct possibility because of his lengthy criminal past.
Although Davis seemed to sincerely believe his theory of black genocide, it was used by his psychologist and attorney to argue that he was legally crazy. "This man needs psychiatric help, not a criminal conviction," said defense attorney David Damico.
The three-day trial in U.S. District Court featured what Mott called "the most slippery witnesses you can have" - two psychologists who offered vastly different expert opinions on Davis' mental state at the time of the crime.
One said Davis was a paranoid schizophrenic suffering delusions of being the savior of black people; the other said the insanity defense was just a ploy.
Davis testified that it was the will of God that he was arrested nearly two years ago on charges of selling 2.2 pounds of cocaine to undercover agents at a Roanoke golf course.
He had hoped that the 12 jurors would substitute as disciples in spreading his message from God.
As long as America's white power structure allows the importation of cocaine from South America to inner-city neighborhoods, "we're doing nothing more than committing genocide of the black people," Davis said.
"You can't make no black babies in the penitentiary," he said. "You can't make no black babies in the graveyard."
Davis was dubbed the "marijuana martyr" after a Wythe County jury slammed him with a 40-year sentence for possessing a small amount of marijuana in 1974.
In testimony Wednesday, Davis said God spoke to him and that he once had an out-of-body experience and ascended to heaven.
Davis, who has been in jail nearly two years awaiting trial, testified "that was the only [out-of-body experience] I had, but I would appreciate another one."